606 words on a stamp…

 

Here is a unique stamp from Belgium Post issued on 8th March. The postage stamp released by bpost to celebrate the International Women’s Day held the world record. The stamp with 606 words was recognized “stamp with the largest number of readable words” by Guinness World Records.

The stamp depicts a woman’s face that is composed of integral sentences coming from the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women”.

The background of the image entirely consists of text. The stamp designer Ann Bessemans used the Big Vesta font for the text to make it perfectly readable in very small size.

It is the first time bpost is issuing a stamp dedicated to the International Women’s Day. “Bpost already released stamps with women in the lead role, but this is the first one for the International Women’s Day”, said Fred Lens, spokesman for bpost.

As a bonus, the stamp entered the philatelic world history: “We’ve sent our design to Guinness World Records, and it has immediately won in the category “stamp with the largest number of readable words”, says Lens. “The category didn’t exist before, but with 606 words, our record will hopefully just hold out”.

Club News

UPHILEX 2014

UPHILEX 2014, a state level exhibition is being held at Lucknow from 7-9 March 2014. About 300 frames with exhibits of different categories from collectors all over the state have been displayed in the exhibition .

: Ambrish Kumar - Allahabad

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Greetings on Mahashivaratri

 

Today is Maha Shivratri (the 'Great Night of Shiva'). It  is a Hindu festival celebrated every year in reverence of Lord Shiva all over the country. Greetings to all the readers on this festive occasion.

Mahashivaratri also marks the night when Lord Shiv performed the 'Tandava', the cosmic dance.According to another legend of Samudra manthan, Shiv saved the world from the disastrous effects of a poison that emerged as a by product of churning of sea (Samudra manthan), by consuming whole of it. Shiv could arrest the poison in his throat by his Yogic powers and it could not go down his body. His neck turned blue due to effect of poison on his throat and thenceforth he is also called as Neela Kantha or The blue Throated.

Unusual Flora – Plants of the Botanical Garden of Meise stamps from Belgium

Bpost issued a sheet of 5 stamps from the series “Unusual flora” featuring some plants of the Botanical Garden of Meise.

The Botanical Garden of Meise is one of the largest botanical gardens in the world with an extensive collection of living plants in addition to a herbarium of over 3 million specimens. The current garden was established in 1958 after it moved from the center of Brussels. Researchers at the garden conduct research particularly on Belgian and African plants.

The Botanic Garden contains about 18,000 plant species – about 6% of all known plant species of the world. Half are in greenhouses, the other half, including cultivated and indigenous plants, are outdoors. The gardens are grouped around the castle and lake of the Bouchout domain.

The mission statement of the Botanic garden of Meise specifies the increasing and spreading “the knowledge of plants” and contributions to “the conservation of biodiversity.”

The plants featured on stamps are: Titan arum (Amorphophallus), Pebble plant (Lithops), Monkey cups (Nepenthes), Ant-house plant (Myrmecodia) and Jade wine (Strongylodon).

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World’s first Thermo - sensitive stamps…

 

 

Hi !

Here are world’s first heat sensitive stamps issued by Belgium Post. These are unique stamps with special features. The color of the tree depicted on stamp changes with increase in the temperature.

The Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (IRM) is celebrating its hundredth anniversary this summer. On this occasion, the Institute has partnered with bpost to present the first Belgian and even world novelty: four thermosensitive stamps depicting the four seasons of the year.

The IRM is celebrating its 100th anniversary on July 31. To mark the event, the Institute cooperated with bpost to issue special stamps printed with a temperature responsive ink.

“This technological innovation is the first Belgian and certainly the world first”, exclaims the spokesman for bpost, Fred Lens. The series consists of five stamps: a stamp depicting the building of the IRM and four heat-sensitive stamps, each representing a tree whose leaf forms the map of Belgium. The foliage is green but when the temperature exceeds 25°, for example if one puts a finger on the stamp, the green layer disappears showing the tree in one of the four seasons (sun, rain, snow, clouds).

New stamps on Music

Belgium post issued a stamp dedicated to traditional music festivals held in open air all around Belgium in summer time. The most famous ones:

Rock Werchter: it’s a Belgian annual music festival held in the village of Werchter, since 1976. It is one of the five biggest annual rock music festivals in Europe (the other four being Exit, Sziget Festival, the Glastonbury Festival and Roskilde Festival). The 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2012 festivals received the Arthur award for best festival in the world at the International Live Music Conference (ILMC). It can host 85,000 guests daily, of which 67,000 combine all four days, to add up to a total maximum of 139,000 different attendees.

Pukkelpop: it’s an annual music festival which takes place near the city of Hasselt, Belgium in mid-to-late August. It is held within a large enclosure of fields and woodland in the village of Kiewit, approximately 7 km north of Hasselt. It is the second largest music festival in the country after Rock Werchter, with an attendance rate of 180,000 over the course of the event in 2009.

Dour Festival: it is an annual music festival in the municipality of Dour, Belgium. Since its creation in 1989, the festival has grown to an attendance of about 144,000 in 2008 (over 4 days). The festival format now consists of 4 days, 6 stages and 200 bands and DJ’s. The festival’s acts come from a wide range of genres, such as: electro, rock, drum and bass, pop, R&B, reggae, house, punk, hardcore, metal, hip-hop, indie, techno and more. The festival attracts a very international and mixed crowd. In January 2010, Dour Festival won the prize for the best medium-sized festival at the European Festival Awards.

 

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